Red Bull top second practice in Belgium

Red Bull made their presence felt at the top of the timings in the second practice session on Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix.

After the morning rain, bright sunshine welcomed the teams as they got down to the business of some serious dry-weather running.

The early part of the session was all about completing the basic set-up work that could not have been done in the morning before the teams switched to the softer medium compound to learn the speed gap between the two compounds.

Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to do so immediately going over a second faster than than his best time on the hard tyres and that would be a theme continued throughout the grid.

As Vettel led heading into the single lap runs, with a time on 1:50.555, Webber was the first to set a competitive time 1.1 seconds faster than his team-mate. Vettel soon followed surpassing Webber's time however eventually setting a 1:49.331.

Webber improved but could not match that time eventually finishing .0.059 slower than the German.

Nobody else was close to the Red Bull's as Romain Grosjean's Lotus came third but over eight tenths slower than Vettel.The Ferrari of Felipe Massa was fourth with the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne an impressive fifth.

Kimi Raikkonen was the last man within a second of Vettel in 6th with Alonso .3 slower than his team-mate in 7th, Sergio Perez gave McLaren fans some hope claiming 8th.

Nico Rosberg was the first Mercedes all the way down in 9th, the Brackley based team are known for hiding their true pace however, Paul di Resta's Force India completes the top 10.

Following the lower fuel runs attention then switched to the race simulations as the drivers and teams learned how the Pirelli tyres would cope around one of the most testing circuits on the calendar.

Running ran very much as expected with Red Bull holding the advantage in the early laps but Lotus were more consistent as the tyre degradation kicked in. Mercedes continued to keep their cards close to their chest while Ferrari seemed a little off the optimum pace.

The session will be remembered however for a late puncture for Sebastian Vettel which brought his session to a premature end and a high speed crash for Giedo van der Garde in the Caterham exiting Stavelot, the Dutchman was unharmed.

Overall then the Red Bull's are looking very strong heading into the weekend, however that gap may mean very little with rain forecast to make a return both on Saturday and Sunday.

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DISCLAIMER

This article has been written by a member of the GiveMeSport Writing Academy and does not represent the views of
GiveMeSport.com or SportsNewMedia. The views and opinions expressed are solely that of the author credited at the top of this article.
GiveMeSport.com and SportsNewMedia do not take any responsibility for the content of its contributors.

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